Nothing is more important than how you feel on the inside. Outward influences may be as bright as the colors in the prism array of Technicolor art, but the most important color is the shade behind your kaleidoscope eyes, it is the hue is which you view the world, it is the Pantone that you use to set the mood.
Make your own rainbow, set your own tone, your world is a box of crayola shades.
The tangerine clouds fade to lavender against the electric blue sky.
The periwinkle mood highlights hidden colors
That had been bleached by the summer’s cycloptic gaze.
A hot evening unfolds a cool end
A long day leads to a short night
A peaceful finish to a rowdy sentiment.
Excitement is in the air, it is not stifled by the heat of the summer’s first breath. The thrill of spontaneity is enlivened with the hot conductivity in the stagnant, humid air.
Things have loosened up in the free air with the temporary lifting of winter’s heavy grasp. Once again our skin is free from the bonds of clothing, our bodies manageble wearing it’s own skin.
Our heart pumps more merrily in the skip of summer’s whistle, our eyes sparkle in the rainbow of the sun’s prism.
The wheels are spinning, churning and turning, but with so much thought and not much to show for it, I feel like a hamster caught in the infinite loop, chasing an end the doesn’t exist. Run, run, run after a dream or away from a nighmare, the wheels are spinning.
A scenic second day after the summer solstice
melts like a marshmallow in heat.
Cozy like a orange glowing fire,
the content afternoon rolls by.
Excitement looms like a hot storm,
gathering clusters of cotton ball clouds,
highlighted in sunset colors,
huddle along the rim of the earth,
waiting for something to happen.
So much to do, just to be undone. So much effort to prepare, so much effort to undo. You form a team to construct an imaginative project based whimsical ideas, and after a weekend of realization of your particular vision, you slowly take it all apart, appreciating the journey that created such a concrete experience.
On the return to the normal life, although busy, is worth the long and drawn out build up. So much energy is put into a project, and the outcomes goes so quickly that you blink and it’s gone. It’s an experience, it’s a mood, it does not last except for the feeling that is imprinted.
Temporary beauty, not many things last in this reality. You get out what you put in, but you can never be sure that the reward will match the intentions in the form you wish.
Last year it was all about magic. The trip down the rabbit’s hole, as I like to describe it, has been anticipated every day since I discovered the burner community. Last year was without a doubt magical. The lesson learned was finding belief in myself, in the powers that lies within and all around. I felt that magic comes from a special feeling, but its has to be brought out. Magic exists intrinsically, but it has to be manifested, it has to be sought out and forced out into a constructed being.
Last year was a very exquisite introduction to an alternative lifestyle, one that puts moral values over monetary ones, one that puts imagination before practicality, that puts friendships before convenience.
This year, it was all about love. You go into it having some set of expectations, but also knowing that you have no idea what to expect. It’s never the same, something (actually everything) always changes. This burner concept is a very fluid environment, so preparation only takes you so far.
I thought that this year would reestablish that magical feeling of rediscovering imagination, but it that was not lesson that I learned this merry-go-around time. This year, I felt the love of the temporary community and spaces that we made. I soaked up every second of the town, of the merriment, of the place and space that we created. I felt special to bond with people through a shared effort, through tribulation, struggle, problems, shared adventures, true connection.
This year helped me reestablished that I absolutely love feeding people, and when it comes down to it, that is really the one thing that gives me the greatest joy, sharing food. Eating is the backbone of everything we do. Nothing can be created or enjoyed without the energy to do it.
It made me realize how important it is to have special connection with a person, how much you can learn from a community, how everyone adds values to your life, how relying on people around you is not a weakness, it makes you stronger.
This year, it was all about love. My heart feels shiny, in fact I think it’s glowing
Farewell, my friends, for a week of fortune hunting, for a week of golden dreams, for a week of sun saturation. Farewell from instagram, from facebook, from pinterest, from restaurant blogs, from the icy hug of cool computer screens.
I will try to blink in the stars, to chase dragons in a landlocked lake, to breathe in inspiration from the wind, the face the wrath of fire.
See you in a week, and save up some stories to tell.
I am looking forward to a break in the action, to geting away from this crazy life for a few glorious, stolen days- but mostly I am looking forward to a new wave of inspiration and gaining a different angle of perception.
I am looking forward to escaping the alarm clock- but mostly I am looking forward to perceiving time as a feeling instead of as a rigid measurement.
I am looking forward to summer dresses- but mostly I am looking forward to wearing clothes for the purpose of fun over the purpose of business casual.
Inside a full Chicago Red Line Train, Early Summer, Morning Rush Hour Commute
Cut Scene:
On a packed early morning train ride, a man is uncomfortably coughing into his sleeve. He tries in vain to snuff the cough, but it will not relent. The passenger next to him fiddles with his bag, producing that familiar plastic water bottle crunching sounds as he rifles through his possessions. Thinking that this man is going to help out the poor sufferer, the passengers visibly relax and get comfortable in their seats. The man pulls out an almost full water bottle, so cold that the plastic is no longer clear, it has developed an icy opaque hue dripping with condensation. He unscrews the cap, lets the open bottle hang in the air with no determined direction for a long pause, then brings it to his own lips to take a very petty swallow before he re-screws the lid and stuffs it back in his own bag. The heart of the coughing man breaks as he swallows dry saliva in an unsuccessful attempt to suppress the coughing fit.
End Scene.
marigolds forever 